Novo Nordisk focuses on creating drugs to prevent weight gain

Novo Nordisk, the leading Danish diabetes and weight loss drug company, is expanding its horizons into obesity prevention. With overweight and obese patients already benefiting from its medications, the company is now embarking on a revolutionary approach led by Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, the company’s CEO. Jørgensen has established a unit dedicated to “transformational prevention”, using artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to deeply understand obesity as a disease.

Key to this initiative is the Select trial, a massive study with more than 17,000 participants designed to examine the cardiac effects of Wegovy, a weight-loss drug from Novo Nordisk. This medication, part of a new generation called GLP-1 agonists, has already been shown to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, serious cardiac events and death. Using this data, Novo Nordisk seeks to identify patterns that reveal why some people are more likely to gain weight, potentially paving the way for drugs specifically designed to prevent obesity.

Martin Holst Lange, executive vice president of development at Novo Nordisk, highlights the importance of obesity prevention, describing it as the “holy grail.” Although only about 5 percent of obesity cases are attributed to genetic factors, Novo Nordisk scientists will explore genomic, epigenetic and proteomic data to better understand the disease and its triggers.

Nadeem Sarwar, head of the transformational prevention unit, highlights the complexity of obesity as a therapeutic area, where biological factors intertwine with social, cultural and behavioral aspects. In addition to pursuing preventative medications, Novo Nordisk also aims to identify people at risk of becoming obese in the next two to five years, using digital solutions to communicate that risk and encourage behavioral changes.

In the United States, Lydia Alexander, president-elect of the Obesity Medicine Association, cites the growing awareness of “pre-obesity” among health professionals. By addressing family history of obesity during medical visits, Alexander suggests a paradigm shift in recognizing obesity as a disease process, not just a result of careless habits.

Despite promising advances, Novo Nordisk will face significant challenges if it succeeds in developing a preventive drug for obesity. Patients currently taking medications such as Wegovy and Ozempic, designed to treat diabetes but often prescribed for weight loss, experience significant gastrointestinal side effects. The key question will be who will be willing to take a preventative medication and how the cost will be distributed, especially given the current reluctance of some health systems and insurers to cover expensive drugs like Wegovy.

As Novo Nordisk advances this new frontier, the possibility of preventing obesity could represent a significant change in the way we approach and treat this complex medical condition.

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